Actor: Matt Smith

When it was time for the season finale of Doctor Who to be broadcast, there was one member of GQ Actor Of The Year Matt Smith's family who broke with tradition.

Smith Snr was in front of the television in Northampton, his usual glass of Chablis in his hand. Matt's mother Lynne was keen to see if it could top the episode where the Doctor takes Vincent van Gogh to the Musée d'Orsay (her favourite). And Matt's sister, a dancer whose suggestive aerobics in Eric Prydz' "Call On Me" video helped make going to the gym that bit more bearable for men everywhere, surely tuned in, too - she likes to catch it when she can. As does Matt. Usually. "I'm a shameless geek who watches himself on television every Saturday," he reflects. "I just desperately want to see what we've done with the episode." But that weekend, Matt was at Glastonbury; delighting children in the Green Kids Field, posing for photos with a stocking-clad Daisy Lowe (they were just back from a few paparazzi-pleasing days in Capri; "Who The Man!" approved the Sun) and closing the festival in a manner he's unlikely to forget - playing his own theme tune with Orbital ("Yes! Glastonbury! What up, baby?" he announced). It's not how you'd have caught David Tennant carrying on.

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Cast at 26, Matt is the youngest Doctor ever, there to lead a franchise regeneration that saw him go from zero ("Doctor Who?" thundered the papers) to hero ("The best since Tom Baker?") in 13 weeks. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't have those

Matt says. "So there's a great sense of delight and relief." "I was the one least inclined to go young," says executive producer Steven Moffat. "But you've all seen Matt now. You can't really argue with that. His Doctor is, in the nicest possible way, completely unhinged. You think he might just forget to diffuse the bomb because he saw a nice butterfly."

So: if you assumed the eleventh Doctor's bow-ties-are-cool young fogeyishness was all down to Moffat's writing... it's not. "That's what he's like! He's half the coolest guy on earth; half your dad's best mate." Indeed, in person, Matt flits between showing

GQ his new jewellery ("I got this in Paris. It's a little compass!"), getting distracted by breakfast ("This is the bit where you say, 'He munches on a chocolate croissant'") and coming over all serious about his new-series costume fitting ("I'd like a hat..."). He talks soccer one minute, Schopenhauer the next. Which obviously makes him a brilliant Doctor. And like all Doctors, an unlikely leading man. "He's a really odd-looking guy!" offers Karen Gillan, AKA on-screen companion Amy Pond. "But in the most brilliant way. I've actually never seen anything like his head before." With upcoming non-Who roles with Eva Green and Imogen Poots, the head hasn't stopped him being cast opposite some fine-looking actresses. "Well, that's the plan!" Matt says. "Long may that continue!" Who the Man indeed.